Behind the Scenes at SpaceX's Cape Canaveral Launch Site

While in Cape Canaveral for the final launch of the Space Shuttle, scheduled for tomorrow, PM senior editor Joe Pappalardo paid a visit to the place where SpaceX hopes to launch the next craft capable of docking with the International Space Station.

Welcome to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It's what some call heavy lift country, where giant rockets break free of Earth's gravity to put people and satellites into orbit. And just miles away from where the shuttle Atlantis is preparing for its final flight this week, Elon Musk's SpaceX is working feverishly to perfect a launch system that could deliver cargo to the International Space Station once the shuttle retires. The company's launch headquarters is built on the site of prior Delta IV and Atlas V launches, giving it a rich heritage of heavy lift rockets.
This sphere located at the company's launch pad holds 110,000 tons of liquid oxygen (LOX). SpaceX bought the tank from an Air Force scrap yard for a dollar. This LOX is mixed with rocket-grade kerosene to power SpaceX's rocket engines.

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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Welcome to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It's what some call heavy lift country, where giant rockets break free of Earth's gravity to put people and satellites into orbit. And just miles away from where the shuttle Atlantis is preparing for its final flight this week, Elon Musk's SpaceX is working feverishly to perfect a launch system that could deliver cargo to the International Space Station once the shuttle retires. The company's launch headquarters is built on the site of prior Delta IV and Atlas V launches, giving it a rich heritage of heavy lift rockets.

This sphere located at the company's launch pad holds 110,000 tons of liquid oxygen (LOX). SpaceX bought the tank from an Air Force scrap yard for a dollar. This LOX is mixed with rocket-grade kerosene to power SpaceX's rocket engines.

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Mission Assurance and Integration

Scott Henderson, director of Mission Assurance and Integration at SpaceX (facing the crowd in a black shirt), describes the layout of the nine Merlin engines of the Falcon 9 rocket.

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Falcon 9

The first stage of a Falcon 9. Nine engines power the first stage; the second stage above separates from the first stage and ignites a single engine to blast into space.

Rockets travel on this rail line down to the transporter-erector vehicle. The machine slides out from a preparation facility, holds the rocket horizontally and then maneuvers it upright on the launch pad.

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Rocket Assembly

Unlike other launchers, SpaceX assembles its rockets horizontally, so there are no massive launch towers or vertical assembly buildings here like the ones that mark the skyline in other parts of Cape Canaveral.

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Space Station Missions

NASA is depending on SpaceX as one of two private companies tasked with delivering cargo to the International Space Station once the shuttle goes into retirement. SpaceX vice president of communications Bobby Block says the Falcon will be ready for its next mission, some sort of ISS flyby, by November 30, and a December flight could be in the works. Block told reporters that the company is pushing NASA to accelerate the ambition of its launches, including an actual docking mission to the ISS.

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